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A review by lilli_w12
Green Lantern, Volume 3: The End by Ardian Syaf, Doug Mahnke, Szymon Kudranski, Geoff Johns
4.0
33 books
243 issues
4860 pages
65 days
That is how long it has taken me to read Geoff John's entire Green Lantern run. This review is for all the books I've read, the review for Green Lantern, Volume 3: The End will be at the end (no pun intended).
A wild ride with highs and lows (mostly highs). A very ambitious run, but one I enjoyed reading. All the writers were good, but my favorites were Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi. Favorite books in the run have been The Sinestro Corps War, Green Lantern: Wanted: Hal Jordan, Blackest Night, Brightest Day Vol. 1, Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps (Tomasi's whole pre-new52 run), Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors, and War of the Green Lanterns, in no particular order. The art was excellent throughout, with good character work. Speaking of the characters...
Hal Jordan - The Cocky Pilot:
Hal was really the main character of these books, with his arc of rising from his fall. Hal is my personal favorite Lantern, I've been partial to him since the show, and I really relate to/understand him as a character. He was very well written here, he was arrogant but not too arrogant, quippy but not too quippy. My favorite moments of his were at the beginning, where you could see his composure crack and the guilt seep through. Him wearing different rings felt earned (*cough*Kyle*cough), and he had many cool moments (him as a Black Lantern? awesome).
John Stewart - The Soldier Architect:
John wasn't heavily featured, but he was still very interesting/cool. I love how his constructs were formed, and how he made hard decisions and took the shots. He could be very cold and logical, which I liked (snapping that guy's neck so he wouldn't give up information? awesome).
Guy Gardner - The Angry Jerk:
This series made me really like Guy. I couldn't stand him before, but here he's a layered character, with a sad backstory. He was very blunt, and honest, with a big mouth, who didn't mind standing up to authority. His buddy cop friendship with Kyle was very heartwarming and I liked his attitude/humor. He could still be annoying, but overall I think that made him a better character. He was written the best (in my opinion) in Emerald Warriors, and as a Red Lantern.
Kyle Rayner - The Romantic Artist:
Poor, sweet Kyle. The hopeless romantic idealist. My favorite moments of Kyle's was his innocent naivety, and confusion when the Guardians were doing the wrong thing ("why are you doing this?") and his sacrifice in Blackest Night. I liked that he was an artist and not a typical superhero.
Simon Baz - The New Guy:
He was fine I guess? Kind of disappeared at the end. It was really annoying how everyone asked him what his tattoo meant, I swear it happened like 5 times.
The Supporting Cast:
Sinestro was a very well written villain here. William Hand was sufficiently creepy. The rest of the Green Lantern Corps were good too (Kilowog, etc.), except Sodam Yat. He was built up, then did nothing and disappeared. Disappointing. The other color Lanterns were written well, especially Atrocitus and Larfleeze. Loved Saint Walker and Indigo-1. Carol was a good love interest.
new52:
The whole universe rebooted and almost nothing changed! So there's not much to say about this. They made Guy's family cops, which gave me O'Dare vibes, and was... fine, I guess? Wasn't crazy about it, but it wasn't that bad either. Kind of made me think of how Kyle is there in the first place, did Hal become Parallax in this universe? Guess so. That doesn't make any sense in the new timeline, but I guess Geoff wanted to keep it.
Overall:
A bunch of interesting ideas and excellent characterization. Geoff John's revitalized a character, and this run has been one of the best DC things I've read so far.
Green Lantern, Volume 3: The End -
Ironically the ending saved this for me. Lots of cool stuff happened. Everyone got their happy ending. Had to read a lot of other stuff in the middle of this to understand what was going on though, which was not good. The Third Army, still looks stupid, and Volthoom was kind of boring. Sinestro was the star of this book strangely enough (at the end at least). Satisfactory conclusion.
243 issues
4860 pages
65 days
That is how long it has taken me to read Geoff John's entire Green Lantern run. This review is for all the books I've read, the review for Green Lantern, Volume 3: The End will be at the end (no pun intended).
A wild ride with highs and lows (mostly highs). A very ambitious run, but one I enjoyed reading. All the writers were good, but my favorites were Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi. Favorite books in the run have been The Sinestro Corps War, Green Lantern: Wanted: Hal Jordan, Blackest Night, Brightest Day Vol. 1, Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps (Tomasi's whole pre-new52 run), Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors, and War of the Green Lanterns, in no particular order. The art was excellent throughout, with good character work. Speaking of the characters...
Hal Jordan - The Cocky Pilot:
Hal was really the main character of these books, with his arc of rising from his fall. Hal is my personal favorite Lantern, I've been partial to him since the show, and I really relate to/understand him as a character. He was very well written here, he was arrogant but not too arrogant, quippy but not too quippy. My favorite moments of his were at the beginning, where you could see his composure crack and the guilt seep through. Him wearing different rings felt earned (*cough*Kyle*cough), and he had many cool moments (him as a Black Lantern? awesome).
John Stewart - The Soldier Architect:
John wasn't heavily featured, but he was still very interesting/cool. I love how his constructs were formed, and how he made hard decisions and took the shots. He could be very cold and logical, which I liked (snapping that guy's neck so he wouldn't give up information? awesome).
Guy Gardner - The Angry Jerk:
This series made me really like Guy. I couldn't stand him before, but here he's a layered character, with a sad backstory. He was very blunt, and honest, with a big mouth, who didn't mind standing up to authority. His buddy cop friendship with Kyle was very heartwarming and I liked his attitude/humor. He could still be annoying, but overall I think that made him a better character. He was written the best (in my opinion) in Emerald Warriors, and as a Red Lantern.
Kyle Rayner - The Romantic Artist:
Poor, sweet Kyle. The hopeless romantic idealist. My favorite moments of Kyle's was his innocent naivety, and confusion when the Guardians were doing the wrong thing ("why are you doing this?") and his sacrifice in Blackest Night. I liked that he was an artist and not a typical superhero.
Simon Baz - The New Guy:
He was fine I guess? Kind of disappeared at the end. It was really annoying how everyone asked him what his tattoo meant, I swear it happened like 5 times.
The Supporting Cast:
Sinestro was a very well written villain here. William Hand was sufficiently creepy. The rest of the Green Lantern Corps were good too (Kilowog, etc.), except Sodam Yat. He was built up, then did nothing and disappeared. Disappointing. The other color Lanterns were written well, especially Atrocitus and Larfleeze. Loved Saint Walker and Indigo-1. Carol was a good love interest.
new52:
The whole universe rebooted and almost nothing changed! So there's not much to say about this. They made Guy's family cops, which gave me O'Dare vibes, and was... fine, I guess? Wasn't crazy about it, but it wasn't that bad either. Kind of made me think of how Kyle is there in the first place, did Hal become Parallax in this universe? Guess so. That doesn't make any sense in the new timeline, but I guess Geoff wanted to keep it.
Overall:
A bunch of interesting ideas and excellent characterization. Geoff John's revitalized a character, and this run has been one of the best DC things I've read so far.
Green Lantern, Volume 3: The End -
Ironically the ending saved this for me. Lots of cool stuff happened. Everyone got their happy ending. Had to read a lot of other stuff in the middle of this to understand what was going on though, which was not good. The Third Army, still looks stupid, and Volthoom was kind of boring. Sinestro was the star of this book strangely enough (at the end at least). Satisfactory conclusion.